Thank you for the Reviews! I've been having a lot of fun writing this story, so I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 2: Injury to Insult
A couple weeks had past since Karin's encounter with the white haired Captain, yet she was still wondering what the severe punishment would be if she ran into that guy again. Today, she was meeting Renji in some strange place in the less public areas of the Seireitei; Renji had described it as a 'bigger version of Urahara's Basement'. Renji was taking her to the doppelgänger basement to train because she was feeling like she needed the extra challenge. The academy was by no means easy for her, but the other students never pushed hard enough. She needed a sense of urgency to fully bring out her skill, and fighting with Renji would do that.
The instructions that Renji had given to find the place were down right confusing, but what did she expect apparently forgetting the last time she followed his sense of direction. Karin had been hiking up some of the rocky terrain of the Seireitei when she stopped to catch her breath and have a sip of her water. Suddenly, A hell butterfly flew past her, and landed right on the tip of her shoulder giving her its message. Renji apparently couldn't make it due to the fact that Captain Kuchiki had assigned him some Squad 6 job to do. He had not been one for specifics.
"That red-headed bastard" shouted Karin's very annoyed Zanpakuto Kagari.
"Calm down, I can already feel my temperature starting to rise." Karin Pleaded. Her Zanpakuto whenever it got mad always started to crank up her inner body heat. Half the time she end up taking a cold shower or an ice bath just to keep herself from passing out.
"I was ready to kick some serious ass, and that idiot just bails on us" Roared Kagari turning Karin's insides into somewhat of a microwave. A bead of sweat dripped off of Karin's forehead which was only the beginning of the uncontrollable Zanpakuto's rage.
"Shut up, and go back to sleep or something. I'm going to pass out again you psychotic sword." Yelled Karin. Karin's Zanpakutos had a bit of temper problem once she was riled up there was no talking her down unless she got some of her energy out or a freezing cold shower.
"I'll kill him"
Karin was worried, the last thing she wanted to do was pass out in the middle of nowhere, but then like the sound of singing angels she heard it: Running water. "Thank god" she cried as she ran towards the small trickling sound she could barely hear in the distance. It took a couple minutes to find where the sound was coming from, and to her surprise she followed a small creek to a beautiful petite water fall. It had a small watering hole, and tiny cave that sat behind the waterfall. Without a second thought she had removed her shihakusho, and was diving right into that water.
"Don't you think you should be careful, what if somebody finds you In your undergarments." Kagari spoke slightly calming down from the fresh cold water that was hitting Karin's skin.
Climbing up into the waterfall so that she came out on the other side partially in the cave, although it was more of an indent in the rock than an actual cave. "Would you shut up already, the only reason I'm in this pond is because you almost roasted me alive again." Spouted Karin angrily just trying to cool the hell down, just try picturing the hottest day of summer without air conditioning and times that by two. Karin's zanpakuto Kagari though strong was hard to control very much taking after the soul from which she was created from.
Meanwhile, A certain Captain was making his way home to cool down and wash off some of the dirt and blood that had accumulated from the duel he had just finished with squad 11s 7th seat. The soul society had decided to do duels between all squads and all members. The idea came from the fact that the soul society had been at peace for so long and they didn't want any of their members getting rusty. They had captains fight captains, and lieutenants fight captains, and everyone fight everyone. They wanted new members to fight people who were stronger even if the fight only lasted a minute they felt everyone could learn from it, and it had shown positive results.
He was coming up close to his personal barracks when he passed the waterfall he was so fond of and decided to take a dip. He removed his Haori, folded it and put it on a rock, and also removed the top part of his Shihakusho. About to dip his toe in the water when he heard "You almost roasted me alive again…"
"Who's there?" Hitsugaya yelled thinking that there were two people in his precious waterfall.
Karin heard the yell and completely stilled with her luck of course somebody had come across the waterfall in the middle of nowhere. She decided to stay silent hoping that maybe the person would just walk away, and leave her and her newly calmed down Zanpakuto alone.
"Show yourself or I will make you regret it." The captain continued on, but he was met with only more silence. The temperature of the area began to drop, and the water began to freeze extremely quickly within a matter of minutes the waterfall was completely frozen. In bare feet he began to walk across the ice toward the waterfall that hid the strange intruder. As he made his way around the now frozen waterfall all he was left to look at was a girl in her underwear with some dark hair covering her face. She was frozen to the spot.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me" Cursed Karin moving the wet dripping hair out of her face with her left hand. She would have used her right hand but it was solidly frozen in the waterfall beside her, along with her feet which were stuck to the ground. A shocked looking White haired Man stared back at her.
"What are you doing" Hitsugaya spoke with that same smug look on his face that Karin recognized from their last encounter.
"Why do you always want to know what I'm doing." She barked back which only gained her a very long glare that almost seemed to last last minutes.
"Didn't I tell you that you would be punished if I found you without a member of the Gotei 13 escorting you." He retorted, trying his best not let this arrogant academy student (who by the way rolled her eyes at his statement) push him around. He was also trying very hard not to look too closely at the exposed woman in front of him. He couldn't help but notice that she was absolutely breathtaking but the fact of the matter was that she was still an idiot student. Karin had shifted a little bit looking slightly uncomfortable standing there in all that ice.
"Getting cold are we?" Boasted Hitsugaya happy with the fact that she might have regretted not coming out of the falls when he asked who was there.
"Nah.. The cold doesn't really bother me much, hell I'm always trying to cool down, but your ice Is seriously twisting my wrist." She groaned shifting again trying to lessen the strain that was being put on her wrist. Captain Hitsugaya couldn't believe that this girl didn't mind the cold, but once he thought about it, she hadn't even shivered once through the whole exchange. Hyorinmaru chuckled in the back of Toshiro's mind saying something along the lines of 'Finally someone who can deal with your cold personality, figuratively and literally.' to which HItsugaya just inwardly rolled his eyes.
"Are you going to unfreeze me, or just stare at me all day while I stand here half naked." She chimed in breaking Hitsugaya out of his inner thoughts. Internally she laughed because her last comment had gotten a small blush out of blue eyed guy. She didn't think he looked like the type who would get embarrassed over a small thing like a some nudity, but apparently she was wrong. She couldn't help but think that he was very handsome and apparently innocent, but it was those alluring eyes that kept her completely engrossed. Kagari had chimed in with the fact that he had a very muscular body, and looked like he would be great warrior. Warrior was like a trigger word for Kagari which got her all fired up again, and Karin was probably the only person who was okay with still being trapped in the ice. Although happy with the coolness that the ice was providing, she couldn't help but feel the uncomfortableness in her wrist that was still set in from being twisted and flash frozen.
"Well I could melt the ice…" He pondered pretending like he was actually tossing the idea around in his head. "But the Stealth Force is running some drills later today, and they do tend to come across this area at least once. If they found you… I know they'd bring you back to their Captain, and she would immensely enjoy punishing an rebellious academy student." He finished and turned to walk away when the girl suddenly yell out.
"Wait!" He turned back to look at the pathetic girl still trapped in the ice.
"What." Hitsugaya chided having had enough of the foolish academy student.
"Can you at least unfreeze my wrist? Frosty." Teased Karin not expecting that he would do it, but she wanted to get one last jab in before he left. Hitsugaya hearing that last word unfroze the entire amount of water in matter of seconds hoping it would cause her fall on her ass, and then he could freeze her again. The problem was that Karin didn't fall on her ass, she fell sideways right into rock wall of the cave smashing the top of her forehead above her left eye.
"OWww" she hollered whilst spitting out some freshly unfrozen water from her mouth, she stabilized herself and managed to get back into a standing position. It was then that she realized that the water she had spit out was partially made up of blood from the oozing wound she had above her eye. Hitsugaya who witnessed her fall let out a small chuckle even though the plan didn't go accordingly, he had accomplished what he had set out to do. He saw her finally stand up in front of him and after wiping the dark hair out of her face he saw the blood and the cut that was spewing out all the red matter. Hitsugaya instantly felt the guilt settle over him like a cloud making its way to the place where it would release its rain drops. He wanted to embarrass the girl maybe give her sore bottom and ego, but seeing her actually get hurt made him feel remorseful.
Karin on the other hand was just trying to get the cut to stop bleeding, the blood kept pooling in her left eye and down her face. As she tried washing out the cut in the fresh water a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist pulling her backwards, and she was left staring up at the guy who had caused her injury. She didn't really blame him for what he did, in all honesty she knew from the very beginning that she was pushing the guys buttons. Karin knew karma was a bitch, and she got what she deserved even so she would never admit that to anyone but herself.
"Let go of me Ice Satan, I need to stop the bleeding." She groaned. Hitsugaya ignored her words grabbing the top part of his shihakusho off the nearby rock, and wrapped it around her petite body.
"Come with me." He commanded not really giving her choice since he grabbed her wrist and started dragging her away from the waterfall. He was going to take her to his person barracks: his home. He wasn't fond of the idea of taking the girl to his personal space, but he needed to fix the girl's face up so that he could have a clear conscience. Karin had no idea where the icy guy was taking her. She tried to ask where but was cut off by a simple glare, so she decided to stay quiet for once in her life. After a couple more minutes of walking they reached a simple little house with a small porch on the outside. "Wait here" directed Hitsugaya pointing to the chairs on the porch as he went inside the quaint little home. After about five minutes had past Hitsugaya came back out carrying some kind of container and a towel.
"What your not going to invite me in? Kind of rude don't you think…" Karin Mumbled under her breath, she was not happy with the fact that she was being treated like the bad family dog who isn't allowed inside.
"Didn't want you to bleed all over my stuff." The captain shrugged as he walked over to the chair she was sitting on. He put the ointment on the table after unscrewing the lid, and pulled out the small cloth towel. He motioned for her to look up at him, and she followed his instructions since the cut was still bleeding profusely. He began to dab the cut whilst he reached into the jar of ointment and slathered some right onto her cut, and the bleeding began to stop right away. Karin was finally able to look up into the face of the guy who she had been bantering with this whole time, it felt some what intimate having him hold her face with his large cold hands.
"Holy shit! That's stuff is insane! Where did you get it?" She asked picking up the jar of magic.
"None of your business" He smirked. He wasn't going to tell her that he had won it in a bet with the 11th squad member Ikkaku Madarame. The bet was simple. He just had to find all of his Lieutenants sake hiding places, and you better believe that he knew every last hiding spot even down to the bottle hidden under the floorboards.
"What time is it? and I never asked you your name." Asked Karin inquisitively.
"I believe it's half past 4 and my name is Toshir-" He was cut off.
"Half past 4! Seriously? I've got to go like now!" She staggered flying off the chair and down the stairs. "Ah thanks for stopping the bleeding, see ya" Karin chirped before flash stepping away. She had almost forgotten that they were doing attendance checks more regularly because students had been sneaking off the campus. She believed she was probably about ninety-five percent responsible for the new rule, not that they had actually caught her or anything. She had definitely pissed off some teachers in the time she had been at the academy, and they probably knew she must have something to with it.
Toshiro Hitsugaya was left standing there wondering how he had managed to have wasted so much time bickering with the girl. It was like nothing ever fazed that girl she was filled with so much energy and life. I can't believe she didn't even shiver once during our whole exchange and now that I think about it when I grabbed her wrist it was extremely warm. Why did he keep running into her? Why was she like a bull in a china shop? Was she always so hard to deal with or was it just when she was with him. He could tell she loved to get under people's skin, and he had been so quick to stoop to her level usually he could control himself. He dealt with Rangiku Matsumoto for heaven sakes, so how was it that some feisty little academy student could get him so worked up.
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